1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to wireless communication infrastructures, and, more particularly, to wireless access points in a packet switched communication network.
2. Related Art
Wireless access points are in widespread use, both in public places and private areas, because of the mobility that end point wireless devices provide. Packet switched communication infrastructures include wireless local area networks that essentially contain wireless access points and end point wireless devices. End point wireless devices include personal or laptop computers, servers, set top boxes and handheld data/communication devices, for example. Often a plurality of wireless access points are bridged to provide additional coverage area. The communication between wireless access points and the end point wireless devices occur on the basis of predefined sets of rules or protocols.
One of the major uses of such wireless local area networks is that availability of Internet in many private and public places, with out needing to be hooked up to a network with cables. In addition, in many public places the wireless Internet access is available free of cost. However, the wireless local area networks that contain wireless access points are often overloaded with the traffic patterns being irregular, this is especially true in public places. The overload depends on the number of users accessing the wireless local area networks, the bandwidth consumed by each user, and Quality Of Service (QOS) provided. When a wireless local area network is overloaded, it becomes slow and often the wireless local area networks breakdown under such conditions, causing inconvenience to the users.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art through comparison of such systems with the present invention.